As we reported in 2012, in an article titled “Roundup Herbicide Linked To Overgrowth of Deadly Bacteria,” a growing body of research points to the world’s most popular herbicide as causing dysbios (pathogenic alteration of gut bacteria), a condition which profoundly affects and alters the so-called holobiont, or total set of organisms that make up our bodily constitution, and as a consequence, health. Because we depend on the proper selection and quantity of bacterial strains with which we co-evolved over countless eons, any significant disruption of the commensal ties to this microbial universe will result in a state of suboptimal functioning, ultimately leading to disease.

The exploding gluten sensitivity epidemic, for instance, may be a direct result of the increasing prevalence of glyphosate-tainted commodities in the food chain, a topic recently explored in a collaborative paper produced through myself, Jeffrey Smith, Stephanie Seneff, Tom Malterre, and Dr. Tom O’ Bryan, which can be read here.

The brilliant and outspoken MIT senior scientist Stephanie Seneff is quoted in a recent article on the topic:

The way glyphosate works is that it interrupts the shikimate pathway, a metabolic function in plants that allows them to create essential amino acids. When this path is interrupted, the plants die. Human cells don’t have a shikimate pathway so scientists and researchers believed that exposure to glyphosate would be harmless.

Indeed, in the new study researchers discovered that glyphosate altered the microflora of 4-year old cows such that the highly pathogenic Clostridum botulinum strains of bacteria flourished, leading them to conlude:

“[G]lyphosate causes dysbiosis which favors the production of botulinum toxin in the rumen. The global regulations restrictions for the use of glyphosate should be re-evaluated.”

Consider that botulinum,

“..is the most acutely toxic substance known, and that despite the fact it is FDA-approved for use “cosmetically,” e.g. Botox injections, it is being looked at as a potentialbioweapon because it only takes 75 billionths of a gram (75 ng) to kill a person weighing 75 kg (165 lbs). It has been estimated that only 1 kilogram (2.2 lbs) would be enough to kill the entire human population.”

Any chemical capable of increasing the proliferation of botulinum producing bacteria should be considered a clear and present threat to human health. The fact that the predominant agricultural model in the U.S. relies on GM plants which are designed to survive being doused in this toxicant, e.g. GM soy, corn, canola, indicates that anyone eating a standard GMO-heavy American diet (S.A.D diet) is likely being exposed to chemicals which shift their microbiome towards the botulinum producing pole.

Present regulatory models on GM foods do not account for the widespread contamination of the food crops (and the environment) with Roundup and glyphosate, and therefore consider conventional and organically-produced crops as ‘substantially equivalent,’ even though glyphosate exposure and contamination of GM food clearly violates this principle.

As research on the toxicity of glyphosate (and Roundup) accumulates, the consumer has only one option available to avoid inevitable harm: namely, avoid at all costs foods that are produced within this chemical-dependent agricultural model, either growing one’s own food, buying from a fully vetted farmer or community supported agricultural source, or focusing on buying non-GMO certified and/or organically produced food which does not rely on chemicals of this type.

This article first appeared at GreenMedInfo. Please visit to access their vast database of articles and the latest information in natural health.